# What does ‘cut corners’ mean?

To “cut corners” means to do something quickly and cheaply, at the cost of quality. A 19th-century idiom drawn from the practice of taking a short route by cutting a corner; the pejorative sense followed.

## What it means

- A 19th-century idiom drawn from the practice of taking a short route by cutting a corner; the pejorative sense followed.

## Action steps

1. Common critique of shoddy work.
2. Example: They cut corners on materials and now the roof leaks.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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